Blogs we follow

September 12, 2008

Wavvy Clouds

We have word that the U. S. Patent and Trade Office has approved a application by
Google that outlines a scheme to build a giant floating data
center powered by ocean energy in the form of waves, tides and currents.

"Pelamis machines are giant, linked semi-submerged
cylindrical parts that produce electricity when wave motions drive a
hydraulic system that includes electrical generators. Pelamis has built
a 2.25-megawatt wave energy farm off the coast of Portugal."

It makes a huge amount of sense to co-locate datacenters and alternative power sources, as it's typically far cheaper to move electrons than atoms. This idea can be extended to others forms of alternative power, for example wind and solar. The trick with these, it would seem will be how to dispatch the workloads in the datacenter to "sync" these loads with the availability of power from these intermittent sources. Hmmm...I smell another patent....or better, startup!